The exciting extended clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
